Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

‘Īsī-dem iken ey ṣanem-i yār-ı dil-rübā
Niçün helāk ider beni ol la‘l-i cān-fezā
Görüp ḫadeng-i ġamzeñi dil vehm idüp didi
Peyk-i ecel midür bu yaḫod rehber-i ḳażā
Ol çeşm-i nā-tüvānı görüp ḫaste göñlümüz
Başına çigzinüp didi cānum saña fedā
Deprenmege mecāli iñen yoḳ bu ṣubḥ-dem
Zülfüñ hevāsıyıla meger ḫastedür ṣabā
Gül yüzi ḥasretiyle ölenler mezārıdur
Her ḳanda şem‘-i lāle ki var şöyle cā-be-cā
Gördüm k’uġurlayın baña ol ġonca-leb söger
Didüm ne dirsin ol didi kim nesne yoḳ du‘ā
Yā Rab du‘ā-yı vaṣla ki el götüre Münīr
Ol hicr odına yanmışuñ it ḥācetin revā

In English

1. O idol, O heart-ravishing beloved, while your lips have the breath of Jesus (which raised the dead), why do those soul-reviving ruby lips destroy me?

2. Seeing the arrow of your glance, the heart grew fearful and said: "Is this the courier of death, or the guide of fate?"

3. Seeing that languid, swooning eye, our sick heart circled around its head and said: "My life be your ransom."

4. This morning the breeze has no strength at all to stir; it must be sick with longing for your tresses (and with their air).

5. The tulip-candles that appear here and there, everywhere, are the graves of those who died longing for your rose face.

6. I saw that the rosebud-lipped one was cursing me in secret; I said, "What are you saying?" and he said, "Nothing, a prayer."

7. O Lord, when Münîr raises his hands in prayer for union, grant the wish of the one who has burned in the fire of separation.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the seventh of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 7). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif) and does not appear in the list of refrains in Ersoy's introduction; the rhyme is the sound "-ā": dil-rübā, cān-fezā, ḳażā, fedā, ṣabā, cā-be-cā, du‘ā, revā. The poem is found in three manuscripts of the divan (VT 100a, VY 80a, Ü 18a) and in two anthologies of response poems (nazire), that of Pervâne Bey (PB 22b) and that of Nazmî of Edirne (MN 26b). Its presence in the anthologies suggests that the ghazal was read during the poet's lifetime and after; this is our own inference. According to Ersoy's apparatus, PB reads "ol" instead of "ey" and "bu" instead of "ol" in the opening couplet; the fourth and sixth couplets are missing in PB. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built on the beauty of the beloved that both revives and kills. In the opening couplet (matla) the lips are called "‘Īsī-dem", that is, having the breath of Jesus. In divan poetry the breath of Jesus raises the dead; the lips too give life with a kiss. Yet the poet wonders that those "cān-fezā" (life-increasing) lips destroy him, and the contrast becomes the real invention of the couplet.

In the second couplet the glance (ġamze) is seen as an arrow, and the heart likens this arrow to the herald of death or the guide of fate. The third couplet uses the divan motif of the "sick eye": the beloved's languid, half-closed eye is called "nā-tüvān", in its dictionary sense powerless. The sick heart, on seeing the sick eye, circles around its head. The idiom "başına çigzinmek" in its dictionary sense means to circle around someone, to offer oneself as a ransom for them. Here two sick ones meet; this correspondence is our own observation.

In the fourth couplet the heavy, slow blowing of the morning breeze is ascribed to its falling sick with longing for the tresses; this is a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). The word "hevā" in its dictionary sense means both "desire, longing" and "air, wind", and since it is used of the wind it creates a double entendre (tevriye). In the fifth couplet red tulips are likened to candles burning on the graves of lovers who died longing for the rose face.

The sixth couplet is a small scene of dialogue. The word "uġurlayın" in its dictionary sense means secretly. The beloved curses the lover, the lover asks what was said, and the beloved says "a prayer". In divan poetry it is a known subtlety that the beloved's curse counts as a prayer for the lover; the couplet puts this in the beloved's own mouth. In the pen-name couplet a real prayer is then made for the lover who burns in the fire of separation; thus the word "du‘ā" of the sixth couplet returns in the last couplet in its serious sense.

Bibliography

Online sources